Last Time .....
Madara also snorted, "That's right. Who here doesn't have some tragic past? No one should laugh at anyone else. As ninjas, we must be prepared for anything. Everyone lives in their own hell."
These words resonated with all the ninjas. Hashirama and Kakashi looked pensive and remained silent, their faces reflecting unspoken emotions.
Obito, Itachi, and Sasori silently hid their faces in the shadows, concealing their emotions. Everyone had their own pain, their own breakdowns, unwilling to reconcile with themselves, and finding it difficult to reconcile with the world.
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"You only tell me this now, something so important!" Tobirama was furious.
"What difference does it make whether I told you sooner or later?" Madara scoffed. He had initially thought Sakura's Tsukuyomi experience would offer hope, which was why he hadn't mentioned this discovery. But now the situation couldn't get any worse, so it didn't matter anymore.
Tobirama was speechless. Indeed, it didn't matter whether he told him sooner or later; it was a dead end anyway.
Hashirama thought for a moment before realizing the gravity of the situation. He was immediately shocked. "Wait! Madara, are you serious?"
If Madara was telling the truth, it meant that all hope of finding Naruto and Sasuke was gone.
Minato's face was also extremely grim. He asked his two students, "Obito, Kakashi, did you notice anything?"
Kakashi, shocked, shook his head apologetically. "Minato-sensei, I wasn't born with the Sharingan. Although I can use it, I can't perceive anything too subtle." "
Obito, however, had a sudden realization: "I did sense the distance, but I initially thought it was just my imagination. Every time I crossed the distance of thirty worlds, the next spatial or world landing point always seemed strangely distant from our world in my perception. Because it's three-dimensional space, you can't simply represent the distance forward or backward. I always thought it was because I was bad at math, which led to a poor sense of space, and that's why I couldn't perform logical distance calculations."
Finally, Obito seemed a little embarrassed, scratching his head. His intelligence was only 2; things requiring mental effort weren't his forte. He relied on innate intuition in combat and action.
Sasori was also getting impatient. He frowned and asked for confirmation, "Wait, so you mean if we can't find Naruto and Sasuke in these thirty worlds or dimensions, and you can't cross this invisible barrier, then our plan to find Naruto and Sasuke and break the Infinite Tsukuyomi has completely failed? That means all paths to saving the world are blocked, right?"
Madara remained silent, while Tobirama's expression was serious but he didn't say a word.
Sasori scoffed coldly, "Then what's the point? Since this world is doomed anyway, just release my Impure World Reincarnation. I don't want to waste time just to prolong the lives of those who are destined to die."
Sakura, initially confused, finally understood the situation after their back-and-forth questioning. Hearing Sasori give up so quickly, she unleashed all her panic and anger on him:
"Sasori, don't talk nonsense! This world won't end! How can it end?! Naruto and Sasuke are still fighting, trying to save our world! How can we give up first?!"
Seeing the pink-haired girl holding back tears as she fiercely shouted, Sasori wasn't angry. They were all dead; the world's demise didn't matter to him. But Sakura was alive. How could she willingly watch her world perish, everyone she knew slowly die in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and herself ultimately face her own demise?
Sasori's heart stirred slightly; beneath his mocking tone lay a crude comfort he himself didn't realize. "If you're afraid, I can wait until the day you die to dispel the Impure World Reincarnation. I don't care if you return to the Pure Land sooner or later, but I won't do any futile efforts to save you."
"Who's afraid!" Sakura roared, almost punching Sasori in the face again. "There's no way there's absolutely no way! I don't believe it! I'm going to go see that so-called border myself; maybe it's all a misunderstanding."
Minato, Tobirama, and Hashirama didn't want to give up. Although the possibility of a misunderstanding, as Sakura suggested, was slim, perhaps they could find traces of some ninjutsu or sealing technique?
"Madara, take me to the border," Tobirama directly requested, and Hashirama quickly followed suit, saying he wanted to go too.
Minato then asked Obito. If Madara were to take the First and Second Hokage, plus Izuna, it would be too much for him.
Obito nodded, also taking Itachi, who, though expressionless, was clearly worried.
Sakura immediately clung to Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, take me with you."
Kakashi, seeing the resolute yet subtly vulnerable Sakura, couldn't bring himself to refuse.
Sasori suddenly spoke up. "White Fang's son, take me with you. I'll go see what's going on; maybe I can help."
Kakashi didn't think Sasori could be of much help, but he also seemed to have no reason to refuse.
Madara, Obito, and Kakashi simultaneously activated their Susanoo. Two giant Susanoo, one blue and one cyan, stood tall and almost filled the entire Kamui space.
Everyone stood in the windows on the foreheads of their respective Susanoo. Then, Madara, Obito, and Kakashi simultaneously opened their eyes wide, activating their Rinnegan and Mangekyou Sharingan.
The fact that they could travel directly from the Kamui dimension to the other dimensions and worlds after the portal opened was an advantage, preventing the God Tree from attacking Sakura again.
Upon entering the first other dimension, Minato and Itachi used the Bloodline Tracking Ninjutsu again. The two bloodlines pointed in different directions, but this time, everyone followed one of them. After ten dimensions, the bloodline indeed deviated again, returning to its original path. However, this time they didn't follow the bloodline but continued forward. After traversing another twenty dimensions and worlds, they arrived at the so-called "boundary."
Madara stopped his Susanoo, activated his Rinnegan again, and peered into the world beyond the boundary. He said, "The next world I can see is a world of rolling mountains and vast forests. Obito, Kakashi, what about you?"
Obito's Sharingan's Tomoe markings spun rapidly, confirming Madara's statement. "Yes, what I see is also mountains and forests. This world is extremely far from our current world."
Kakashi didn't answer immediately, even rubbing his eyes slightly. He said apologetically, "Sorry, give me a little more time. My chakra isn't very strong."
Madara and Obito were currently in their Edo Tensei state, so they had unlimited chakra, allowing them to simultaneously use Susanoo and the Rinnegan/Mangekyou Sharingan to traverse other dimensions and worlds.
Kakashi was the only exception. Firstly, the Sharingan wasn't an innate skill, so he wasn't as adept at using it. Secondly, although he had received a large amount of chakra from Sakura, this was the first time he had traversed thirty worlds without interruption for so long.
Upon hearing this, Sakura immediately activated the Hundred Healings Technique, black lines spreading from her forehead throughout her body. She reached out to replenish Kakashi's chakra. "Sensei, I can lend you my chakra."
Kakashi smiled. "Thank you, Sakura. Not this time, but I might need your help later."
Sakura bit her lip and nodded, her hand still poised to support Kakashi at any moment.
Kakashi nodded in confirmation, "What I saw was the same as Madara and Obito's."
Tobirama then spoke up, "I need to test it out. With three Susanoo, we'll split up and travel to the next dimension in three separate trips. Madara will go first, Obito in the middle, and Kakashi last. Just in case, Minato and I will each leave a Flying Thunder God kunai in each team. Of course, while the Flying Thunder God can theoretically ignore distance and travel through space, we haven't tested whether it can traverse thirty dimensions and other worlds. If we get separated after traveling, and after half an hour our Flying Thunder Gods don't reappear, then we'll split up and return to our own worlds."
No one objected. Minato and Tobirama each equipped their respective teams with their own Flying Thunder God kunai.
Then, Madara opened the portal to the next world and was the first to pass through.
Obito, who had been watching the changes in the next world intently, observed for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I can't see Madara."
Then, Obito also opened the portal and passed through. Kakashi struggled to maintain his Mangekyou Sharingan, then said to Sakura and Sasori, "I can't see Madara and Obito. Now it's our turn. Get ready."
Sakura clenched her fists nervously. She looked up at Kakashi worriedly and asked, "Kakashi-sensei, are you sure you don't need my Hundred Healings technique?"
"Haha, I can hold on a little longer. If I can't, I'll definitely tell Sakura. I won't push myself." Kakashi said with a laugh, then manipulated Susanoo to open the portal to the next dimension.
The blue Susanoo passed through the entrance, and Sakura felt a strange pull for a moment. Then, the blue Susanoo appeared in a vast desert, completely unlike the mountainous forest world that Madara, Obito, and Kakashi had described. Kakashi and the others hadn't seen Madara or Obito either. If they had all entered the same world, their initial landing points must have been the same.
Kakashi sighed, "Looks like we really did get separated. I'll look for some markers to pinpoint our location."
Madara, Obito, and Kakashi had all made simple markings of the worlds they had searched, making it easy to locate their current position and relative distance from their own world the next time they passed through.
Kakashi raised his Susanoo and looked down from the desert sky. Unlike ordinary terrain, deserts easily disappear even if traces are left behind. Fortunately, Kakashi still spotted a mark: a massive crater caused by Chibaku Tensei, apparently Madara's work.
On the scorched earth, flames had burned out huge black marks—the numbers 3-6-4-2-17. This indicated the 17th world on the second branch of the fourth world line, the sixth branch of the world on the third branch of the starting world from their world.
"Hmm, it's convoluted and complex," Sakura thought for a while before drawing a spatial diagram in her mind. She exclaimed, "It's like a honeycomb! Our world is surrounded by layers of hexagonal spaces and other worlds at its innermost layer."
Sasori, equally intelligent, also sketched a spatial diagram. "The outside of our world is so densely packed; it feels a bit nauseating."
Kakashi confirmed his location and waited for half an hour as agreed. When Minato and Tobirama didn't appear, he began to travel back to his own world.
By the time they reached the last five or six worlds, Kakashi was clearly struggling, and Sakura's timely intervention with the Hundred Healings Technique helped them all return to their respective worlds.
When the three teams reunited, the relaxed expressions on everyone's faces had vanished, replaced by grave seriousness.
"Let's try again," Minato suggested after taking a deep breath.
No one objected, and they began trying again. This time, Tobirama and Minato activated their sensory ninjutsu to the maximum, attempting to find clues while traversing the worlds. Although they did sense something amiss, they couldn't pinpoint anything.
"I feel like this is a sealing technique, but I can't detect its range at all," Minato hesitated, glancing at Tobirama.
Tobirama was cautious, and he shared this sentiment. However, if it truly was a sealing jutsu, the problem was even greater. He rubbed his temples again, his head throbbing with frustration:
"That's certainly the most likely possibility, but if it's true, who do you think could go to such lengths to seal off thirty worlds and spaces? Even the Sage of Six Paths and Kaguya couldn't!"
What Tobirama didn't say was that a seal covering thirty worlds was impossible for anyone to break. Tobirama considered himself a genius, but he was still human, not a god!
Everyone fell silent. Giving up so easily was out of the question. Perhaps it wasn't a sealing jutsu, but some other reason?
Because traveling to and from thirty worlds would take a very long time, they could only attempt it twice a day at most. Therefore, the next day, Kakashi asked Sakura not to go anymore. The priority was to quickly prepare nutrient solutions for everyone. Otherwise, it would be ridiculous if they finally figured out the method only to find everyone dead.
Sakura, though anxious, knew she couldn't help with the spatial barrier issue, so she stayed behind. Izuna, Itachi, Sasori, and Hashirama also stayed to continue providing life support to all the ninjas.
Madara, Obito, Kakashi, Minato, and Tobirama continued their research on the spatial barrier.
To save time, Madara and his team didn't return to the real ninja world. Instead, they continued to travel to the world at the critical point after each failed crossing, saving considerable time and allowing them to cross over once more each day.
A month passed, then two. One-eighth of the Allied Shinobi Forces were already on life support. At the current pace, it would theoretically take another seven months to cover all the ninjas, seemingly a tangible end. However, this completely failed to consider the ninjas' current need for nutrient solutions. Adding that time would double the time, taking over a year to complete the work. They had no idea if the ninjas could survive until then. Massive numbers of the elderly, weak, sick, and young among the common people had begun to die, turning into White Zetsu.
To Be Continued ...